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Appeared on: Friday, February 01, 2013
Google Settles With French Publishers, Offers 60 million Euros Fund

Google will pay 60 million euros into a special fund to help French media develop their presence on the Internet and gain from advertising through Google's services.

Google's move is a response to the pressure the search giant has been receiving from European media publishers, who ask Google to pay them licensing fees for listing headlines of articles in its search engine results.

Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt and President Hollande of France announced two new initiatives to help increase revenues for French publishers. First, Google has agreed to create a &euro60 million Digital Publishing Innovation Fund to help support transformative digital publishing initiatives for French readers. Second, Google plans to deepen its partnership with French publishers to help increase their online revenues using Google's advertising technology.

The agreement follows months of talks between local media companies and the Internet search giant. Google settled a similar case with Belgian publishers in December following a similar tactic, but still faces a dispute with publishers in Germany.

Previously, Hollande had threatened to draft legislation to force Google to pay media for posting links to their content if no deal was signed.

"This exciting announcement builds on the commitments we made in 2011 to increase our investment in France-including our Cultural Institute in Paris to help preserve amazing cultural treasures such as the Dead Sea Scrolls," said Eric Schmidt.